[AliciaC]

I have loads of green tomatoes, each of my 11 or so plants has about 8 to 10 green tomatoes and tons of blooms. We are looking at temps in the high 90's and even 100. I don't want to lose any. I had heard about putting up a sun cloth? Everything is mulched good and watered. Any suggestions or know anything about a sun cloth?

 

[Errol]

AliciaC, a shade cover will help keeping the hot sun from scorching the fruit. But the only thing I fear from the high temps over 90's in daytime and 70 at night (as it is here now) is that the high heat will sometimes keep blossoms from setting fruit, and the blossoms just drop off. sometimes spraying the blossoms with epsom salt will help some, (1 tbs to a quart of water). I have never used a shade cover (black mesh) so I couldn't say if it would help or not except from scorching the fruit.
good luck and keep us inform
Errol

 

[Dirty Nails]

We have had 90+ temps and my tomatoes hung on fine. It cooled a little the past few days and some are now blushing. New blossoms are now coming on again, so keeping them watered well was the key. No shade cloth here, we have had strong wind every day.

 

[veggiewhisperer]

I have noticed that I need to water my tomato plants more frequently compared to last year. I had all of my tomato plants in pots last year, this year they are in ground. I really don't like the way they are turning out.

 

[abeeson20]

Last year my tomatoes were a mess. Between blight and the weather I was always fighting to keep each tomato I grew.

This year is the exact opposite. My plants are about 4 feet tall, bursting with blossoms and not the first sign of blight or any other disease. I've also got tomatoes growing on every plant.


What's the difference? First it's been drought conditions, but I've watered every other day or so. Then I doubled the depth of my mulch this year. My mulch is about 4 inches deep on each plant. I also picked up some anti-fungal spray (daconocil or however' it's spelled) and used it each week during the early wet weeks. I also chose a store bought vegetable fertilizer and distributed it about 3 weeks ago, rather than the fresh water fish tank water I used in the past.

I am really excited to see how my tomatoes turn out this year. My 3 year old daughter and I check on the tomatoes each day and she's excited to snag that first cherry tomato in the next couple of weeks.

It's amazing the difference a year can make.

 

[Kathibg]

I had the same problem last year with blight here I southeastern Massachusetts but it was supposedly from WAY too much rain! This year I moved my tomatoes to a different garden area that yielded tons of fruit several years ago and from what I'd heard, even commercial growers had problems wit blight around here last year so I wasn't too concerned...until about 2 weeks ago when I noticed spots and yellowing leaves again! We went right out and bought some anti fungal spray (I think its daconocil or w.e. it's called) and we sprayed but I didn't know until today that I should be removing any leaves or stems that are affected (although I did follow my instinct and removed most of them yesterday when we resprayed) but having read the section here on blight, I will go over every plant with a fine tooth comb (and a blade to cut them off) first thing tomorrow morning. I am just so upset that we've got the same problem again this year...I just wish I hadn't been so lazy about finding a site like this so that I could have started inspecting and spraying at the first sign of a problem. The only good thing is that I will DEFINITELY stay on top of this problem and hopefully will not loose all of my tomatoes like I did last year!